New, well to me, Full Size Jeep

New to me full size jeep, on paper it's an '89 though it has some donor parts from other years. This is the rig I've picked to build along side my son's efforts on the '96 XJ.

Ran great on the way home, rebuilt 360 with about 5500 miles on it. Body allegedly has 78,000 though the rust I've found makes me believe it might be more. Sitting on 35s with six inches of lift. Dual stainless exhaust and routed properly out the back. Anemic because even though the motor was built, new cam etc, it's still topped with a stock 2bbl intake and carb. Adding aftermarket intake and carb is a definite need.

It has the usual issues found in vintage tin FSJs, window motors, rust, electrical, the list is long but mostly minor types of issues. I'm not looking to restore it, rather just turn it into a weekender in the mountains type of rig.

I'm looking forward to working with my sons on these projects.

Opening Credits, Sort of...

Jeep

Hell the word itself carries with it visions of rough terrain, mountain passes, rocks and tumbleweeds, snow and cold rivers. An American Icon of the highest order and I've been a fan for as long as I can remember.

For several years now I've been writing and maintaining americangrouch.com and will continue to do so. However, I've decided that I'd rather not clutter up American Grouch too much with my jeep journey. Instead I'm launching another blog that will focus on my amateurish efforts with my vintage tin. There might be some crossover from time to time as backwoods bumming will always be my first love, sometimes it'll include a jeep or two. Still, I'm going to try to keep the jeep stuff here.

I'm not a mechanic and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night. I'm certainly no expert and don't claim to have some sort of unholy handle on wrenching, jeeps, off roading or anything like that. I've got some tools, a garage, a couple jeeps and a lot of ambition. We'll just have to wait and see how far that takes me. With any luck I'll be learning quite a bit, and so will my boys who will be helping me in getting our jeeps as much trail worthy as road worthy, perhaps even life-worthy.

We're not off roaders really, we don't own or work in a shop, we're just average guys with a fondness for jeeps. We're not going to be making history, merely weekend wrenching and with any luck a whole bunch of memories.

Welcome to a Backwood Bum's journey into jeepin'!

Our 1996 Cherokee